MOPS

For those of you who don't know what MOPS is, it is a group dedicated to Mothers Of Preschoolers. It's a wonderful, international, Christian group that literally has groups in just about every city and town. If you have children from newborn through kindergarten be sure to find a group near you and check it out! Over the last several years this group has been a Godsend to me. Not that it was anything profound, but just to know that 2 mornings a month I could take my kids in, leave them in someone else's capable hands and go enjoy a couple of hours with other mothers going through the same struggles and joys that I was dealing with. To eat a wonderful meal while not having to cut up anyone's food, dish up anyone else, etc. Now I'm admittedly a quiet, shy person so I never walked in and made deep friendships with the other ladies, but just sharing our struggles, mess ups, and laughs always made me feel like I was ready to face the world of motherhood refreshed after the meeting was done.
We had our first meeting this morning and it was nice to be back. I can recognize so many faces now, I'm feeling less reserved, and just had a great time getting to meet the new table I've been assigned to. This year I'm helping on the leadership team as Hospitality coordinator (a glorified way of saying, the set-up, clean-up, food planner, etc. person). I'm sharing the role with a good friend, and it feels good to have a part in the team. I hope that we bring a breath of refreshment to the ladies that come to the meetings.
On a side note: In past years we've always had a "Mommy mess up" award each meeting for a Mom willing to share how she made some mistake over the past couple of weeks (because lets me real, we all make some pretty funny mistakes as moms). Well, we didn't do that today, so I thought I'd share mine with you all. In all the craziness lately between office work, kids back in school, various schedules, soccer, gymnastics, cub scouts, getting things set up for this first MOPS meeting, etc. I've become a bit scatterbrained and stressed shall we say. Well, yesterday I actually forgot my child at preschool. It was only Ashtyn's second day, and I completely forgot that she was at preschool not upstairs taking a nap like I am used to. I got busy working on insurance stuff and didn't think about the time until the phone rang. The second I heard the phone ring (even before I saw who it was) I just knew. AGH!!! I made a quick apology to the teacher, jumped in the car and luckily the preschool is only 1 minute away from the house. Ashtyn just loves being at school so she really didn't care that Mommy was a few minutes late. But boy I felt sooooo low. What kind of mom forgets her kid at preschool? Anyway, there's my mommy mess up.